If you’ve been reading PPC Ian for a while, you know that MentorBox is the platform I leverage to read, absorb, and take action upon two books per month! More than that, MentorBox is also a community of like-minded individuals who are all investing in themselves. Whether it’s via in-person meetups or the virtual Facebook Mastermind group, I always enjoy conversations with those in the MentorBox community.

Each MentorBox typically includes a bonus lesson workshop. One of the workshops about five or six months ago was all about reaching out. The workshop discussed the theory behind reaching out and how it’s powerful to simply reach out each and every day, to those connections who could take your business and life to the next level.

This lesson helped me form a brand new habit, and I now routinely reach out to prospective connections. In fact, this lesson helped me land a mentor. It also helped me get in contact with both Alex Mehr, Ph.D. (Co-Founder and CEO of MentorBox) and Jonathon Kendall (COO of MentorBox).

It all started with an informal meeting and lunch, and my relationship with the MentorBox team has flourished ever since. (In fact, I have a variety of exciting updates that I’ll be sharing with all of you in 2018, as my collaboration with the MentorBox team is now at the next level!)

Today, because of reaching out, I have the opportunity and honor to interview Jonathon Kendall. One of the sharpest minds around and an incredibly successful entrepreneur and leader (at a young age), Jonathon’s story is sure to resonate with everyone here. His positivity, quest for knowledge, and ability to teach others is admirable. Without further ado, let’s give Jonathon Kendall a warm welcome!

Ian: Jonathon, thank you so incredibly much for being here today! Thank you for sharing your personal story, and the MentorBox story, with PPC Ian.

Jonathon: It’s a pleasure. Thank you for the opportunity.

Jonathon Kendall, COO of MentorBox

Ian: As one of the main faces behind MentorBox, everyone who’s a customer knows you well. Your leadership and interview style is second to none. Before we get to MentorBox, however, I want to learn more about you, the leader, entrepreneur, and student. What was college like for you? How did you get started in business, Jonathon? How has your life story unfolded?

Jonathon: I’ve always been a bit obsessed with reaching for outrageous goals. I clearly remember religiously practicing sit-ups in order to break my grade school record. In middle school I trained (wrestling) at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado. In high school I competed at a national level in Speech & Debate. In college… You can see where this is going.

Gun to the head, the origin of all this was my mother telling me: "Jonathon. Where we live (Ohio), you will most likely be the darkest person in your class. And that’s okay. Good, even. But here’s the thing – if you do well – 'Jonathon' will do well. But if you screw up, it will be 'that Mexican' kid. So always remember, you not only represent yourself, but you represent your family: your grandma and grandpa who picked berries so that you would be able to live a better life, your sister, me and your father. What you do is not for you, it is for us."

My mother would say that the above exact wording is slightly off (the fishes are always bigger as the years pass, are they not?). Nonetheless, that’s how I remember it. My life has been a series of "proving myself" moments, that when aggregated, have resulted in my present position.

The details of my education are boring, I think. I read a lot of books. Went to college. Read more books. Etc. The difference (if there is a difference) is that I’m not-so-secretly obsessed with the meta-lessons of "learning how to learn", "habit formation", and "productivity", as much even, as I am with the hard-skills of marketing, product development, and management.

I’m almost allergically averse to "because that’s how it is." Like a physicist, I like unpacking everything all the way down as far as possible.

Why are we here?

What is right versus wrong?

What should we do?

These are my questions. And towards their answers: this is where my education, hopefully, is taking me.

Does that answer your question? 😊

Ian: Incredibly fascinating answer, Jonathon. That certainly does! You clearly have a passion for reading, Jonathon. How did you get started reading? How has your passion evolved over the years?

Jonathon: The first book I ever read that knocked me on my ass was "Johnny Got His Gun" by Dalton Trumbo in 10th grade. I grew up in a family that valued education, but not so much reading. I know that sounds odd but this sentiment is common, I think.

"Get an education," parents say (while they watch television 5 hours a day).

…the consummate "do as I say, not as I do."
Alas, I didn’t grow up reading. I grew up being asked about my grades…but not about reading.

Nonetheless, sometimes it just takes the right book. The right idea. The right "aha" moment to wake us up from an intellectual slumber. For me, that was definitely Johnny Got His Gun.

It was banned. About war and death. About the efficacy of war. The definition of death. The importance of caring about what is actually important. It deconstructs honor, patriotism, the flag: the meaning of life.

Hence: "knocked me on my ass."

Thereafter I was hooked. Pretty much read everything I could get my hands on and still do. I’ve got through phases where I only read fiction, only read specific authors, only read non-fiction, only read philosophy, old books, contemporary, books about writing, books about books, short stories, and the longest novels ever written. The Russians. The Americans. The French.

Reading is like treasure hunting. Or gambling, even. Once you get that first big win…you’ll never stop looking.

There’s more to say, of course. There are books to deconstruct and theories to analyze. But reading doesn’t necessarily have to be complicated.

My reading motto is the same as Nike’s: just do it.

Ian: I really like that analogy of treasure hunting and finding big wins. Thank you so much for sharing. What are some of the greatest lessons you learned in your early (pre-MentorBox) days? What are the lessons that have helped shape your life strategy, and how did you learn these lessons?

Jonathon: After college I took a job with a startup in Guatemala that completely revolutionized my conception of reality. My mother says, "you came back a different person," and I trust her. Mothers know their sons.

In a word, what I learned was: gratitude.

The understanding that my life was cake. That my privilege, even though I came from a "poor" family, was profound. On account of my passport even. My native language. My education.

…profound.

I won’t get into the details because such platitudinal descriptions worship at the feet of actual experience. But suffice to say – it’s a whole different world down there. So much so, that it’s impossible for that frame not to permanently tattoo itself onto your psyche, forever.

Gratitude.

That’s the lesson which first changed my life.

Ian: While you’re now the COO of MentorBox, I was also incredibly impressed to learn that you were MentorBox’s first hire! How did you meet Alex Mehr, Ph.D., Co-Founder and CEO of MentorBox? How did you even find out about MentorBox at the time? A busy serial entrepreneur and leader, I have to imagine it was difficult to get Alex’s time (let alone land the job as his first employee). What did it take? (As a side note: Many readers here are career oriented, so I believe your response to this very question will be a game-changer for the audience.)

Jonathon: I wanted to be a writer before I was good enough to be a writer: a classic chicken or the egg dilemma of being an artist…

How does one practice writing full time (what it takes to become good), without getting paid for it (what it takes to live)? How does one play that paradox?

Well I took Tim Ferriss’ The 4 Hour Work Week to heart, and moved to Mexico in order to take advantage of the dollar-to-peso translation. I’d work for 4 months in the US, living like a hermetic popper, saving all my money, so that I could give myself off the other 8 months of the year.

I thought of it like an athlete would.

If I wanted to win ("win" meaning: get paid to write) then I’d have to consciously practice. I’d write every day for hours. Ask for feedback. Read everything I could get my hands on. Deconstruct. Analyze. Watch. Listen. I took every class I could find. Basically everything and anything in order to maximize my efficiency.

Which is what brought me into the world of self-development.

Learning how to learn with Cal Newport and Barbara Oakley.

Habit formation with Charles Duhigg.

Motivation with Tony Robbins and Tim Grover.

Etc. Etc.

And so I created a system for myself – a daily routine that would (I hoped) lead me to being a professional writer.

…which worked.

I eventually took on clients full time, ghostwriting books for business leaders and professional athletes. Which, full circle, lead me to MentorBox…

I was just finishing up with a client, when I saw an ad Alex placed, needing writers for this new company out of San Francisco: MentorBox.

The rest is history. From there Alex and I built MentorBox into a giant.

Ian: While I believe most readers here know about MentorBox since I’ve been talking about it quite a bit here on PPC Ian, could you please give a quick overview of your product? I think it would be helpful for the audience to get a summary of MentorBox directly from the source.

Jonathon: Some people stick with the status quo. They live their lives like hamsters in a wheel. And that’s fine. If you want to simply "maintain," then by all means go ahead. No judgement from me.

But if you want to become the best version of yourself (for you, your family, and community) then the science is unequivocal: you must obsessively continue to learn. You must stay on the cutting edge. You must evolve. You must pursue greater and greater goals.

Which…we know.

So that’s not the hard part. The hard part is the HOW.

HOW do I constantly improve? WHAT do I learn? And from WHOM?

These are much more complicated (albeit important questions) and MentorBox answers them for you. We teach you what you need to know, taught by the best in the world in every field, in an incredibly efficient/automated system.

Ian: Thanks, Jonathon. Since you started at MentorBox, your career has grown and evolved. You have taken on more responsibility. If you don’t mind me saying, you are one of the youngest COOs that I know and have experienced a very fast-paced career. What has been your secret? Can you offer the audience the career tips and insights that have propelled you to COO of one of the most amazing startups around?

Jonathon: I think of my professional career as would an athlete training for an Olympic gold medal. What are my competitors doing? What are they not doing? What can I do today to get 1% better? What else can I learn? How can I improve?

It takes a complete shattering of one’s ego to live like this. I understand this and know that it’s difficult. It’s much easier to guard yourself against criticism. But unless you want to rely on luck, which I don’t, this relentlessness is my trick.One of my favorite definitions of success is this: "Successful people are willing to do what unsuccessful people are not." That, I think, sums it up quite nicely.

I’m where I am because I manifested my reality into existence.

Also…I may have gotten a little lucky too. 😊

Ian: I want to shift gears a little. I don’t know how you do it all, Jonathon. You read more books than anyone I know, you complete a multitude of interviews (and, believe me, I know how much work is involved to pull the off successfully), I understand that you like to run, and you have now taken an increased level of responsibility in the operations of MentorBox. On top of all of that, you have made it this far at a young age compared to most. What’s your time management secret? In life, sometimes it’s about the things you avoid. Anything you consciously avoid to keep focused and manage your time effectively?

Jonathon: I’ve created a bit of a forcefield around myself…

I have very few friends. I have very few activities I do or care about. I say NO to mostly everything. Which, I understand, is strange. But I think such laser focus is essential for creating an incredibly meaningful and fulfilling life: one which not only checks off the hedonistic boxes, but also is one that leaves a positive impact on the world.

I doubt Edison was worried about the next happy hour.

I can’t imagine Elon Musk feeling obligated to watch a television show.

Because, here’s the thing, people who accomplish incredible feats are by definition, strange. They are unique. And so…I don’t worry about shutting out everything else.

Noise is noise, I say. I’ve got better things to do.

So that’s step one: cut out distractions.

Step two is a modified version of what Gary Keller’s The One Thing promotes: create a daily success list and do those things first.

I mean, really, I hate to be a bummer – but none of this is all that hard. If everyone who is reading this just actually DID the things they knew that they should do every day – they would be years/decades ahead of where they are now. The trick is, yes, to set the right schedule. But deep down in your heart of hearts, most people know what that "should" is. They know the list. But…

They just don’t do it.

So, I guess, I’ve just built up a habit of setting a very specific agenda every morning based on where I’m currently at, and then actively checking off those boxes. If you do this every day, your life will change in a flash.

Ian: You seem to have a thirst for knowledge. You seem to be on a quest! In your MentorBox video interviews, it seems like you are always trying to pull back the layers of life to uncover meaning. Have you always had this thirst for knowledge? How does it feel right now? Have you discovered the truth, or does it feel like your studies are just beginning?

Jonathon: I used to think that I’d eventually find "the answer" but now I’m equally as convinced that I won’t ever find it. Meaning: I think one of the meta-rules of life is that "it all depends." The devil, as they say, is in the details.

Because even some ethical rule as benign as "be kind" is contextual. Sometimes being kind is not the answer. Sometimes people need hard love.

Or how about compassion? Sure, but isn’t there a line? Even as a society – can we unconditionally forgive everyone in all contexts?

That may not be completely articulate, but I guess my point is to say that no I don’t think there are any hard and fast rules. I have rules, granted, that I live by. But I’m not religiously or dogmatically aligned with them.

If I’m proven incorrect, then I’m proven incorrect. That’s fine. Good, even. I seek out such revelations. So too should everyone, I think.

Though, if you’re interested, my current life mantra is: choose to choose. As in, don’t be passive. Don’t be a zombie. Know why you do everything you do. Be conscious. Make decisions. Be a decider not a reactor.

"Choose to choose."

Ian: I love your "Choose to choose" mantra, Jonathon. Thank you for sharing that! You also have a strength in teaching others. You have this ability to take complex concepts from books and, with the help of your white board, teach the audience in plain and simple-to-understand terms. How did you learn to teach others? How has your teaching style evolved over the years?

Jonathon: Practice.

I know it sounds cliché but it’s true. In high school I competed in Speech & Debate. Then in college I competed in poetry slam. After university I worked as marketing manager, then as a waiter for a very long time…

All of this is communication.

Until when, now, it is literally my job to teach: so I just apply the same intensity to it as I do to all things. I teach a class as often as I can and ask for feedback from my team.

How did I do?

What did I do wrong?

How can I do it better next time?

What should I have said?

Etc.

It’s not a from-the-sky gift, it’s that I’m obsessively and consciously trying to improve.

You can see that this is a theme by now. 😊

Ian: MentorBox keeps growing! Each and every day, I’m amazed at how quickly the MentorBox Facebook Mastermind group is growing. How has the product evolved since you started? Where do see MentorBox heading in the coming years?

Jonathon: I agree. It’s incredible. I’m so grateful every day for our growth. Truly…I tell the universe thank you every single day for our success.

It’s an honor and a privilege to teach our members.

As for the product: it began as a physical product and eventually evolved into the online platform we currently have. Now we also do consulting work, we hold monthly in-person roundtables, have started a marketing agency, and have cultivated an incredible VIP cohort as well.

We iterate quickly so depending upon when this is published we may have already moved on, but as of right now we’re translating MentorBox into Spanish for the Latin American market, and partnering with a few larger companies to fulfill their corporate L&D training for them.

Lots to do. Lots to learn.

Ian: MentorBox has changed my life for the better, without a doubt. That’s the reason I blog about it so much here on PPC Ian (and on my YouTube channel too). Any other success stories you’re able to share? I always enjoy hearing how others are growing and improving. Have any of your customers written in with their own MentorBox success stories?

Jonathon: One of my favorite stories is Tom Jones. He’s a professional endurance athlete and world champion kickboxer, who so persistently emailed our support team with praises, that we just had to meet him.

Like you (Ian), we eventually brought him in for a workshop called "Quit Proof."

Tom grew up in an abusive foster home and never had the opportunity to have a proper education. Never read, he said. "Just put one foot in front of the other." Which works for someone who ran across the US multiple times.

But there was always something lacking, he said. Until he became a MentorBox member…

The fact that we can touch the lives of unambiguously world-class performers, I think, is the reason why I love this story. To bring someone from negative to positive is one thing. To bring someone from good to great is amazing. But to take an elite world-champion performer to even greater heights: now that is truly special.

Ian: It all starts with a great culture. I truly see how Alex and you have fostered an incredible culture at MentorBox! Has this been a conscious decision? We have many folks reading who lead large teams (or even entire companies). Any tips for hiring, empowering, motivating, and growing employees?

Jonathon: I believe that everything in life is a fractal. Meaning: what works for an individual works for a couple works for a company works for a community works for a nation works for a world.

So (Extreme Ownership style) it starts and ends with Alex and I. How we behave is a guiding light for the rest of the team. If we take our mission seriously, so too will the team. If we value creativity and input, so too will the team. Etc. Etc.

So first off, my advice is to look in the mirror and get your own house in order before anything else. Clean your room. Exercise. Be kind. Think hard about why you do what you do. Align your values with your actions.

And then, and only then…

Will you be able to lead a team with any conviction.

After, it’s actually quite easy. Hire for strengths. Hire for values. Hire for energy. And be a human, not just a boss. The rest will take care of itself.

Ian: What’s your favorite book of all time and why?

Jonathon: The Obstacle Is the Way by Ryan Holiday (nonfiction) and On The Road by Jack Kerouac (fiction).

Ian: What quality do you most admire in great business leaders?

Jonathon: Purpose. I respect leaders who view that business is a tool, not an end.

Ian: The process of interviewing others on video is truly an art and skill. I know this first-hand, as a YouTuber. While my individual videos have been somewhat easy (they have improved over time, but they have generally come natural to me), I found that interview-style videos are a whole other ballgame. Can you offer any tips and strategies for those looking to get into the world of video (especially interviews)? How has your style evolved over time?

Jonathon: This applies to more than just interviewing but this is honestly the best advice I can give: overprepare.

Alex calls this bringing "overwhelming force."

When deconstructed, conversations are quite predictable. They start with breaking the ice, then move onto obvious surface level topics, then the two actors eventually drill down into maybe one topic, until finally, hopefully, reaching some meaningful endpoint "aha" moment conclusion.

You begin with "Hello my name is Ian, welcome to this edition of…" and you finish by talking about some personal detail of your life which hopefully illuminates a fundamental(ish) truth to life. Right? That’s how (good) interviews go.

So…if that’s the case. If we know that going into it. If we know that there is an equation. Why not bash the equation and get right into the good stuff as quickly as possible?

And the only way to do that…is to not ask the interviewee a series of banal predictable questions that no one cares about. And the only way to do that…is to earn their respect/trust as quickly as possible. And the only way to do that…is to show them that you took the time to dig in deep to their very personhood.

If you value them to begin with…they will reward you with trust…and that trust will manifest itself in the form of an incredible conversation.

In short: if you stay on the surface, so too will they.

Ian: I fun question for you, my friend. I personally found MentorBox via social media. (Your team’s social media marketing is second to none, by the way.) I was originally exposed to MentorBox via the Tai Lopez podcast (the other MentorBox co-founder along with Alex Mehr., Ph.D.). Then, I received ads promoting MentorBox on Facebook! Needless to say, I was immediately intrigued. I quickly signed up, and I think I’m one of your original customers from month two of the business. Alex, Tai, and your digital marketing team are true leaders in the social media marketing space. However, I have noticed that you personally take a different approach. And, I like that! You do not have as much of a presence out there on social media. Is there a reason for this? Is there a philosophy behind your lack of social media? Is it a time management thing? Would love to learn more about your strategy as it pertains to personal branding and social media marketing.

Jonathon: It’s a time management thing. Eventually I’ll probably take over the MentorBox branded social media accounts: teaching short lessons here and there. But for now (since Tai and Alex are already so powerful), it feels like a redundancy.

We look for paradigm shifts.

At some point, the micro optimization of me building out my own personal brand will completely make sense, but right now it’s unnecessarily redundant.

Ian: I truly believe that we all learn through challenge. Basically the words that Ryan Holiday shares in The Obstacle Is The Way truly resonate in the human experience, in my opinion. Have you faced any challenges in business and/or life? How have these challenges shaped you?

Jonathon: I think my biggest challenge was after I published my first book, The Evolution of Strangers. Before publishing, I thought "being published" was the answer to all my prayers. The clouds would part. Etc.

But that didn’t happen. In fact, many people told me the book was "well written" but boring and even a bit self-congratulatory. "Trying to be Kerouac." "You’re too young." "No one cares."

Which ultimately led me to fanatically pursue writing like an athlete.

So much so that I even lived in my car for months at a time, working 80 hours a week at seasonal restaurants, saving all the money I could so that I could take the rest of the year off to practice.

It was a bit of a self-imposed obstacle: but living in my car for three consecutive tourist seasons was a pretty intense decision.

Many of my friends didn’t understand at the time. But here I am. I knew what I was doing.

Choose to choose.

Ian: Where do you see yourself five years from now?

Jonathon: Oh man. I used to love that question but now I couldn’t tell you. I’m just focused on the next task at hand – ever reaching for that 1% better every day.

Though gun to the head: in five years I want to be embarrassed by who I am now. I want to have become such a better version of myself, that my present manifestation is but a ghost.

And as such: I don’t think it appropriate to let this now version of me, who still has so much to learn, decide on behalf of my future, better self. In five years I’ll let future Jonathon decide. He’ll know better, I’m sure.

Ian: Where do you see MentorBox five years from now?

Jonathon: A revolution.

Ian: Jonathon, I want to sincerely thank you for taking the time to connect with me and all of my PPC Ian readers today! It really means the world to us. I know you are a busy guy, and the knowledge you have shared is truly helpful and inspirational.

Jonathon: It was and is an honor.

Ian: If someone here at PPC Ian wants to learn more about MentorBox, what’s the best way to get started? As a related question, if someone here at PPC Ian wants to reach out to you, what’s the best channel for doing so?

Jonathon: The best way is to become a member and stay active on the mastermind group. It’s rare that I’m able to reply to direct messages since I receive so many these days, but I check the mastermind group every day.

Ian: Thanks again, my friend, for this interview and everything you and your team do to inspire. Wishing you all of the success in the world!

So there you have it everyone, I truly hope you enjoyed today’s interview with Jonathon Kendall, COO at MentorBox. Jonathon is an entrepreneur and leader to follow. His career has already flourished from the start, and I only see big things ahead for this leader. I am personally even more impressed with Jonathon post-interview than pre-interview. What an amazing story he has shared with us!

As you probably know by now, I love MentorBox, and I leverage this program to read two books per month. If you’d like to learn more, I encourage you to head on over to the MentorBox Website.

Also, if you’d like to see how a recent MentorBox book literally changed the game for me, you may want to check out my post covering My Favorite MentorBox Book So Far. Last, for those interested in seeing what it’s like to receive the physical MentorBox each month, I just uploaded a new video to YouTube featuring my very own MentorBox Unboxing.

Jonathon Kendall, COO of MentorBox

Affiliate Disclosure: I am a MentorBox affiliate. If you purchase MentorBox via my affiliate link, I will earn a commission and be grateful for your support. That said, out of respect for the time and effort that Jonathon has invested in this interview, I have not included my affiliate link within the text of today’s interview. (I don’t want him compensating me for any new members/sales that may be generated directly from the hours he invested in sharing his insights and responses with everyone today.) The two text links to MentorBox within the text of this interview are non-affiliate links.

I recently posted an article here on PPC Ian highlighting my angel investing approach. While I’m a dividend investor at heart, I take great pride in allocating capital towards promising early-stage technology companies, especially when the CEO is a personal friend. Well, it just so happens that DigitalTown (the topic of today’s post) happens to be one of these very examples. Rob Monster, CEO of DigitalTown, has been a friend of mine for many years, and I have had the great pleasure of investing in both of his companies, Epik and DigitalTown.

My Rob Monster Video Interview: A Natural Follow-Up To His Written Interview

An incredibly successful serial entrepreneur, you may recall that Rob’s written interview here on PPC became one of the most visited posts on my entire site! Today, I’m back with more. I’m thrilled to share my exclusive video interview with Rob Monster, featuring 50 minutes of insights from the CEO, investor, family man, and entrepreneur himself.

What You’ll Find In Today’s DigitalTown Video

Whether you are an entrepreneur, business executive, smart cities enthusiast, digital marketer, investor, or college student, I truly believe today’s video holds great value for everyone. Following are some of the topics that you’ll enjoy:

An existing publicly-traded company, find out how Rob stepped into the CEO seat and reimagined the future of DigitalTown.

A company at the center of the Smart Cities movement, find out what DigitalTown is all about and what the future holds for smart cities.

With partnership opportunities abundant, find out which types of businesses can integrate with the DigitalTown ecosystem.

Find out how governments are working with DigitalTown.

DigitalTown has an impressive partnership with .London (dot London) and other new top level domain registries (such as dot city). Learn how direct navigation, and dot London, are important to DigitalTown’s strategy.

As a business with a local presence or an individual with a passion for engaging with local communities and local people, want to get started with DigitalTown? Rob shares how!

Especially amongst younger generations, there here seems to be a movement towards living and working in larger cities. Will DigitalTown help revitalize smaller cities and towns as well? Rob shares how.

Find out what local merchants are saying about DigitalTown.

A company that has grown quickly, learn about the major acquisitions that have helped fuel DigitalTown’s ascendance. Learn about Rob’s strategy behind "build vs. buy" when it comes to acquisitions.

Find out about DigitalTown’s latest acquisition, Comencia, and how it will bring user-generated ratings and reviews into the ecosystem. Comencia is all about the local opinion, something critical for the smart city model.

The man who does it all (and I’m telling you, I have not met too many people who accomplish as much as Rob Monster), learn how faith is critical to Rob’s success.

Find out how the power of prayer empowers Rob’s success in business and life. And, how Rob’s faith in Jesus Christ has played a role in DigitalTown as a company.

Leave the interview with some final perspectives that will frame your outlook on business and life.

Thank You, Rob Monster and DigitalTown Board of Directors

In closing, I want to take this opportunity to sincerely thank Rob Monster and DigitalTown. Rob has invested quite a bit of time on this video interview and also his previous written interview, with the goal of adding value to the PPC Ian community. A busy man with many responsibilities, I sincerely thank you Rob on behalf of everyone watching and reading. Your wisdom and knowledge means a lot to us! I also want to take this opportunity to thank Rob and the DigitalTown board of directors for their amazing hospitality at their latest board meeting. I truly enjoyed the opportunity to meet everyone over dinner, spending time with such an incredible team.

Check Out My (Quickly Growing) YouTube Channel

These days, I’m quite focused on video, and my YouTube channel is growing quickly. I please invite you to enjoy Rob Monster’s video interview. If you enjoy it, you may also enjoy some of my brand new investing videos as well, ones where I share my passion and strategies for dividend growth investing. If you like what you see, please make sure to stop by my YouTube channel, and subscribe for the latest. Thanks so much for watching!

Disclaimer: Today’s post and video are for fun and entertainment. This post and video are not investment advice. I am not a licensed investment advisor. If you are considering taking a financial position in any company (DigitalTown or any others), please consult your investment advisor before doing so.

Disclosure: I am a shareholder in both of Rob Monster’s companies, DigitalTown (Ticker: DGTW) and Epik (privately held).

If you’ve been reading PPC Ian for a while, you know that I’ve been a long-time fan of domains. It makes perfect sense as someone who’s now in the commercial real estate industry. I see so much value in owning physical, tangible real property. The same can be said for the real estate of the Internet, domain names.

Rob Monster: CEO of Epik, Entrepreneur, Investor

Veteran readers have also likely followed my journey with Epik over the years as a developer, investor, and advisor. Epik is one of those companies that truly transformed the domain industry, approaching domains as investments and treating customers with concierge services. The trend I see more of every single day revolves around excellence in customer service and experience. Offer legendary customer service like Epik, and your business has a true competitive advantage.

Today’s post is a special one, packed with knowledge and insights from one of the brightest minds around. This knowledge will shape your career. It’s a post all about domains, careers, and the entrepreneurial journey. I have the amazing opportunity to interview an entrepreneurial legend, Rob Monster. Rob just so happens to be Chairman and CEO of Epik. In addition to Epik, Rob’s career is fascinating and impressive. A few highlights (from oldest to newest):

Ian: Rob, thank you so much for taking the time to interview here at PPC Ian. I sincerely appreciate the opportunity.

Rob: It is my pleasure Ian. I am happy to be with you, as I too am a fan of your work as well and have been able to experience your capabilities first hand.

Epik: The Swiss Bank of Domain Names

Ian: I wanted to structure today’s interview with questions spanning domains, careers, and the entrepreneurial journey. Let’s start with domains… What’s the latest and greatest in the domain industry? What are the newest trends? I’m hearing a lot about the new gTLDs. How do these affect digital marketers, entrepreneurs, business leaders, and investors?

Rob: As you know the latest thing has been the launch of the new gTLDs, or domain extensions. The web is shifting to one that is increasingly semantic, i.e. where the text string after the dot has meaning. For example, very soon, you will be able to type city.menu and go to a site that will show you restaurants in your area, and their menus, or go to restaurant.menu and see that restaurant’s latest menu as well as order food online for in-store, take-out or delivery. This is a good illustration of the potential of new domains. The new registries are just now starting to engage as platform developers and I think the implications of that shift are enormous for the future of direct navigation. For example, I am personally involved in several of platform development projects, including .MENU, .TUBE and .BIBLE.

I believe we are just scratching the surface here and that the next 5 years will see the biggest wave of innovation in direct navigation since the launch of the first web browsers. A viable direct navigation framework is critical to the re-emergence of a free Internet, one that is not edited and mediated through search engines. In fact, I think the biggest risk for owners of independent web properties is that search engines are becoming decision engines where sites like Bing and Google simply answer the questions through structured responses, rather than routing you to a list of sites where the searcher has to do the heavy lifting of discerning what is true, particularly in cases where the answers on different sites are not the same as is often the case when doing research.

Online brands represent a trust relationship. People who buy domains are buying the raw land for what can eventually be a brand. The launch of these new TLDs represent a new wave of opportunity to create intuitive and clever online brands, as well as networks of direct navigation sites that adhere to a unified brand and to a unified navigation convention. This will not happen overnight, but I think it is the next big thing for the Internet.

As for the China domain speculation frenzy of the past year, this seems to have been a flash in the pan, with a binge of speculation by a new generation of domain investors who generally lacked a viable development strategy. Many folks made a fortune in the last year selling short .COM names, e.g. 2-4 character and 2-7 numeric .COM domains that adhere to specific patterns that appealed to Chinese investors. I am pretty sure that has peaked but am happy for the industry windfall.

I think the Gulf region will be an interesting region to watch. I am speaking this weekend in Dubai, where I see a whole new generation of savvy domain investors who are looking at domain investment with the intention to develop.

Ian: What is Epik? How does Epik differentiate itself from other registrars? Especially interested in your perspective on customer service, and how Epik offers legendary customer service as a core differentiator. This is something I truly admire about your company.

Power Couple: Rob Monster and Dr. Jill Monster

Rob: Epik is a full-service and all-inclusive registrar. The term "Legendary Support" actually came from some of our early registrar customers, as did the other more recent Epik tagline "The Swiss Bank of Domains". Before becoming a registrar in 2011, I was a relatively large GoDaddy client. Like most early domain investors I did not have great names. At the same time, I was perceptive enough to realize that GoDaddy had grown to nearly 50% market share while providing what I considered to be poor service with an excessive emphasis on up-sells and hidden charges. The straw that broke the camel’s back was when I signed up for free Domain WHOIS Privacy, only to find out that it was not free after year 1, and that it was a major and time-consuming task to remove the privacy. I wrote an open letter to then CEO Bob Parsons about the experience. When I still saw no remedial action from GoDaddy, I felt it was time for a new registrar to emerge. I absolutely believed in the merits of domain names as an asset class, but it was then that I decided that despite GoDaddy employing many lovely and kind people, their policies were Draconian and the industry needed a compelling alternative. So, it was at that point that I set out to build the best registrar I knew how, providing world class domain management software, and combining that with a passionate culture of service excellence. This has served Epik well. Without aggressive marketing, and without acquisitions, we grew 82% in 2015, our 5th full year operating as an ICANN-accredited registrar.

Ian: The Epik homepage describes domains as assets and investments. As an investor myself, this messaging truly resonates with me. Could you please define your personal take on virtual real estate as investments, especially in 2016? Many early investors in the 1990s did extremely well buying generic dot com domains. With that early gold rush being over, are there still opportunities for savvy investors?

Rob: I think the domain investment game is changing. The old legacy business model of buying domains and parking them is a broken model. Most of the parking portfolios that do well are actually filled with lousy domain names. As the parking feed providers have continued to squeeze the parking companies, the monetization from parking has become anemic. While we do park some domains, it has never been the emphasis.

Going forward, I think the opportunities are mainly in development, whether the domain owner develops, or whether the development is done through partnerships, the value-added comes from using domains, not parking them. And if someone has a viable business, and also has traffic domains, they can even use their traffic domains to drive traffic to their operating sites. Development does require a different skill set, and so if a domain investor is not a developer, then I believe it is in their interest to become effective a networking with others. Deals can be structured as partnerships, or alternatively domains can be leased or financed. In fact, if you look at Epik today, a large portion of our business comes from domain name leasing, and domain name financing. I expect you will see more of this as domains finally come out of the portfolios of the domain investors whose primary competency is managing their parking account.

Ian: Those reading PPC Ian are career-minded individuals. You started out at Procter & Gamble and built a successful 8-year career at this CPG giant before starting your first major business, GMI. I’m really curious about your experience at P&G and how it shaped your later years as a business founder and entrepreneur? Do you have any tips for career-minded individuals?

Rob: I left P&G on June 12, 1999 after an 8-year career there in Europe and Asia. My last year at P&G I was global product development manager for Pampers. This particular role involved a very great deal of travel to meet with brand teams and technology teams all over the world as part of the process of developing global product strategy. A big part of this process was gathering market research data, a task that would often take far longer than the strategic decision cycles could generally afford. This led me to investigate the possibility of using the Internet as a platform for gathering consumer insight across multiple countries in real-time. When I discovered that the market research industry barely had any comprehension of this nascent technology called the Internet, I decided to leave the day job and move the family to Seattle to start what became Global Market Insite (GMI).

I spent the summer of 1999 teaching myself to code in web languages, and began to develop the first versions of what eventually became GMI’s platform for online market research. Years later I did have an opportunity to reconnect with many of my former P&G colleagues. They were still lovely people but there was usually no spark. People in big companies make career by not taking risks and instead complying with an endless supply of internal controls and through consensus-based decision making. I did well at P&G, but by 1999, the entrepreneur in me needed to be unleashed.

I still look back very fondly on my early mentors at P&G. It was a great company during those years, attracting some of the best graduates from some of the top business schools. However, for a true entrepreneur, most large corporate organizations will eventually become a challenging environment. As such, I think an entrepreneur should look at the corporate years as being a sort of post-education residency where you have the opportunity to learn how big companies work, and to appreciate what is good about them as well as their various blind spots. As long as the inner entrepreneur is not forced to "sell out", and is being rewarded for their efforts, great. However, by around age 35, you either have made the leap or you have not. I left P&G when I was 32. It was time.

Ian: Rob, your experience at GMI was exceptional. Could you please share this story with the readers? What entrepreneurial lessons did your learn growing a company from concept to huge liquidity event?

Rob: The process of building GMI was a fantastic experience and in some ways a life’s work. The company was able to secure $2.5 million in Series A funding in 2000, within about a year of starting, and went on to grow rapidly, raising capital at progressively higher valuations, with progressively bigger private equity partners. The final external funding event was a $35 million investment led by Technology Crossover Ventures in 2006. The company went on to be sold in 2011, after I was unceremoniously removed as CEO at the initiative of an activist Board member in 2007.

This was actually a very humbling experience that led me on a journey of self-discovery, while also launching a small private equity group of my own called Monster Venture Partners. I think the biggest thing I learned from that whole experience was the consequence of bringing on outside capital partners. Once you do so, as an entrepreneur, like it or not, you have a boss. As a CEO, if you take on external capital, and have Board members, there is a huge expectation to keep the Board informed between formal Board meetings, to build trust and a sense of partnership with them. I frankly viewed my Board as a necessary evil, and despite a continued record of rapid growth, my unwillingness to actively manage my Board ended up costing me the opportunity to take GMI public. The company was instead sold for a 9 figure all cash exit to London-based WPP group, which rewarded all stakeholders.

Ian: As someone who’s built successful, large-scale teams, I’d be curious about your leadership and people management philosophy?

Rob: Well, Ian, my philosophy has changed over time but there are a few things that I can distill then that you might call a sort of wisdom. I think the biggest thing that I have come to accept is that there is a very important spiritual dimension to things. While I did not grow up with any particular religious faith, through the process of time, I came to the deeply-researched conclusion that the God of the Bible is in fact the Creator of the Universe, and that the decision to accept the free gift of salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ is the path to eternal life. When you have eternal perspective, your management philosophy changes.

For example, at an earlier point in my management career, I felt it was easier to be feared than to be liked. However, as a Christian, I choose not to be feared but rather to lead by example, doing the right thing even when nobody is looking. I start each day in prayer. Why? As a sold-out Christian, I am focused on ascertaining God’s will for my life and then acting on that. Since making that decision, I found that Divine Providence has played an increasing role in my life. As a non-Christian, I had very little tolerance for fools and even less patience for rude customers. As a saved man, who has been an active student of scripture, and a tenacious searcher for truth, I now recognize that our battles are won or lost on a spiritual dimension before they play out in this physical dimension. This plays out in unexpected ways, including helping transform the lives of people who have never stopped to contemplate eternity, and are still trying to figure out the meaning of life.

And for me, the meaning of life is simply this: to figure out the identity of the Creator and then to figure out what He wants. Once you know this, it becomes progressively easier to manage the resources with which I have been entrusted and to guide the efforts of the diverse and talented group of folks with whom I have the good fortune of being able to work. It also becomes easier to love everyone, including people whose views are different than mine.

Ian: One of the things I admire most about you, Rob, is the fact that you are a successful serial entrepreneur. Very few leaders are able to successfully start and grow multiple companies. Could you please share your insights on what it takes to drive repeat success?

Rob: The first thing is to have a compelling idea. There is tremendous competition in pretty much any niche, so it helps to have a differentiated idea and a head-start on executing against that idea. There is very little value in being me-too, even if you do it exceptionally well. There has to be an angle that makes you different.

At Epik, we have an emphasis on integrating the value chain of Acquire, Build, Manage, and Sell. We also have built a unique capability around domain name leasing and financing. However, at the end of the day, in an era of high competition, a founder must know the product, and know the customer very, very well. For example, even now, as time allows, I still take support calls throughout the day, in order to make sure I know their pain points, and to develop a relationship with a network of what I called "demanding, sophisticated customers". These are not whiny jerks, but rather they are shared stakeholders in building a product and service platform that would make them more effective. They share their ideas, and we quickly integrate those into our development roadmap. The result is what you see today at Epik.

By contrast, at DigitalTown (OTC: DGTW), I was brought in as an interim CEO in May 2015 to help turn around a failing public company. Since I had not had the opportunity to run a public company, I accepted the opportunity. Within 6 months, we completely shifted the strategy, and within 9 months had a competitive and differentiated product that has the potential to change the world, particularly as it relates to smaller cities and towns that are struggling to defend themselves against the dual onslaught of big box retail and national ecommerce. Part of the rapid progress with DigitalTown was that we were able to complete an opportunistic acquisition of a development stage company called Cloud.Market which had been developing some complementary technology, and whose founder, Chris Maxwell, shared the same vision I had about the future of local communities, and the tremendous potential of web and mobile technologies to change the way the people in towns and cities engage with content, community and commerce.

I very much enjoy the process of birthing companies, and DigitalTown has been a really fun project while also managing Epik as well as some of private equity ventures. I never saw myself getting involved in local politics, but in fact because DigitalTown is build on public-private partnerships, I get to work with some very competent City and County Administrators and Mayors from across the country, and have developed a whole new appreciation for the important role these people play in shaping the destiny of local economies. With DigitalTown, I hope to add some value there.

Ian: Sometimes as an entrepreneur, you have to shift gears. You need to adapt. I know Epik’s business model has slightly evolved over time. I’d be curious about this evolution and how you had the foresight to adapt to a changing marketplace, making the right decisions for the company and its customers?

Rob: Back in 2009, Epik started out as a platform for mass development. For a couple of years, we had a windfall of a business, growing at 300% per year at one point. This was largely attributable to Google, as we were among the most prolific web developers when it came to developing Exact Match Domains (EMDs). For a period of time, Google would consistently index and rank developed sites that used an exact match domain like IceCreamMaker.com.

However, in late 2010, Google threw everyone a curveball by introducing Google Panda. Overnight, sites that were passively earning thousands of dollars per month each, were making just a trickle. And when you have a network of 10,000+ sites operating, the consequences were quite dire. It was at that point that I had to make a judgment decision on whether to try to ride things out with Google, or whether to shift strategy.

It was in July 2011 that we closed on the acquisition of the registrar operations of an established registrar called Intrust Domains. That single transaction gave us an ICANN-accredited registrar, as well as a technology foundation, and a highly talented development team. We have not looked back since. In general, entrepreneurs must be nimble and adaptive. When it comes to startups, endurance does not mean beating a dead horse. It means intelligently allocating finite resources until you have a defendable niche, on which you can build a sustainable business. This is a process, not an event. From time to time, most entrepreneurs will stare into the abyss. Some throw in the towel and get a day job. Some lose marriages. Others get ill due to years of excessive stress or poor diet. These are all tragic outcomes. Fail early, fail cheap. Trust your instincts. Scale what works. Take care of your family. Enjoy the ride.

Ian: Rob, you are one of the most busy professionals I have ever seen. You are also one of the most responsive too. I think every time I have sent you an email, day or night, I consistently get a thoughtful and thorough response within minutes. And, this is from an extremely busy CEO. I really feel that you take service personally in everything you do. Could you please share your strategy? Any secrets on juggling multiple projects at the same time?

Rob: I am a big fan of multi-tasking. Email and Skype are very good for that, i.e. your mind can engage on a multi-threaded basis, which is very hard to do with in-person meetings or with phone calls. Fortunately, I can type quickly. In general, I think technology can be quite liberating if you allow it to be and know when to turn it off. I tend to use technology to my advantage, connecting where I am during waking hours from around 6 am until around 11 pm.

Rob Monster, Dr. Jill Monster, and Their Beautiful Family

In the late afternoon or evening, when I am at home, I can often be found working in our orchard and garden or working on outdoor projects. Mobile Skype on the cellphone serve to keep me connected. And in the summer time, I will finish off some manual labor with a swim in our lake.

Downtime is important. My wife, Jill, is a successful family physician who loves to travel. We manage to take 3-4 vacations per year, usually with 1 or more of our 5 kids in tow. When traveling, I will be connected where practical. I have had the same cell phone number since 1999 and a lot of people have it. As such, my cell phone is generally not at my bedside since I am not a fan of 3 am customer calls. For emergencies, a few core people know how to reach me at home. One challenge I sometimes encounter is international travel, most recently a trip to Dubai where I was without an Internet connection for 14 hours. I am fortunate to have a wonderfully talented staff who always step up to the plate, even without being called upon to do so. For the people who work with me, they generally have adopted my pattern of blending work and play. As long as the work gets done, I don’t really care where you did it, what you were wearing while you did it, or how long it took to get it done. What matters is productivity and effectiveness.

Ian: Rob, I know how busy you are, and wanted to take this opportunity to sincerely thank you for taking the time to interview and share your insights with the PPC Ian community. I personally learned so much from this interview, and I know the knowledge you have shared will help shape many careers. Thanks for everything, it means the world to me and my readers!

Rob: Thanks Ian. Always a pleasure to visit with you, and to share insights. Your readers are welcome to reach out to me via email at rob@epik.com or call me directly at 425-765-0077 and I will do my best to provide personally relevant insight for anyone needing it. I am particularly good at helping folks secure domains from others, navigate intellectual property disputes, and recover stolen domains in the unfortunate event that such a thing should happen to anyone.

Everyone, I wanted to close out today and encourage you to head on over to Epik. As someone who truly values my digital investments and the best service around, I know you will enjoy managing your domains and digital presence on Epik.

If you enjoyed today’s written interview with Rob, I encourage you to head on over to my brand new Video Interview With Rob Monster. Rob actually happens to be CEO of two companies, Epik and DigitalTown. In my video interview, you’ll get to learn more about Rob’s new company, DigitalTown, while enjoying timeless leadership and business insights.

Disclosure: I am a shareholder in both of Rob Monster’s companies, DigitalTown (Ticker: DGTW) and Epik (privately held).

A few weeks ago, I had the great honor of interviewing Tyler Dolph, President of Rocket Clicks digital marketing agency. Today’s post is part two of my Rocket Clicks interview series, an interview with Nicole Mennicke. Nicole Mennicke is VP of Operations at Rocket Clicks and a personal friend of mine, someone who I have known for many years. Like the other employees at Rocket Clicks, Nicole is one of the kindest people I have ever met in business, and someone who I highly recommend as a digital marketing leader and businessperson. Over the years, I have had the great fortune of collaborating with Nicole on the latest and greatest in digital marketing. Today, I am so incredibly honored to learn insights from one of the best…

Ian: Nicole, thank you so much for taking the time to share your story with the PPC Ian community.

Nicole: Thank you, Ian! I’ve been following you and your blog for years and it’s an honor to be considered.

Ian: Nicole, we have known each other for a while now. The industry has changed so much over the years. What have been some of the biggest changes you have noticed in digital marketing?

Nicole: The most exciting change to digital marketing is the increasing amount of available data. Why I fell in love with the industry 7 years ago is still the same today – it’s advertising impact you can see, touch and feel through data. The self-service, auction based advertising model has allowed advertisers to give as little or as much as they want and equip them with every tool to measure the effectiveness of their efforts.

In that opportunity also lies one of the biggest challenges. Every new team member quickly becomes sick of the phrase "80/20… 80/20…" however the more seasoned team members know it’s essential to avoid paralysis by analysis. With the available data, performance metrics, micro/macro conversions and way to combine them all, we have to know when to stop analyzing and start making decisions.

Ian: Some strategies change, others don’t. What are some of the newer strategies you’re testing these days? What are some of the old favorites that have served Rocket Clicks and your clients well over time?

Nicole: We are seeing a ton of value with looking at data in new ways using scripts in creative ways. For example, we all know quality score is king! Using different scripts we have an automated way to passively collect daily or weekly quality score data. We have been able to really map how our changes impact quality score, and improve the overall quality of our clients’ accounts.

As for old favorites that served Rocket Clicks and our clients well, I think the key is knowing when they can and should be used and when they shouldn’t. One strategy we’ve seen the most success with is isolating your highest volume/performing keywords and spending most of your time doing all you can to make them the best they can be. Small improvements on these keywords always bring the highest gains.

Ian: Rocket Clicks is such an amazing company. Please tell me your story. How did you get started at Rocket Clicks? How has your career evolved at Rocket Clicks over time?

Nicole: I came into this industry like many others have – without a clue it even existed! All I knew was I was looking for a "marketing job", whatever that actually means. I applied for a paid search analyst position with our parent company to manage the PPC account of a sister company. I joined without knowing that within 3 weeks I would be employee #2 of a PPC agency (soon to be) named Rocket Clicks! A copy of Definitive Guide to Google Adwords, by Perry Marshall was dropped on my desk, and the first 4 team members on the PPC side of the business were tasked to figure out pay per click marketing.

I went from personally managing clients PPC accounts to managing a small team of analysts overseeing their own client books, and then in 2010 moved into the role as Director of the PPC Advertising department.

As we grew and scaled as an agency, there was an increasing need to create consistency across the company to better develop and document our core systems & processes for team member development, client services, and company operations. It fit perfectly in my strength as well as allowing me to work closer with all parts of the company.

Ian: In your opinion, what differentiates Rocket Clicks in the world of digital marketing agencies?

Nicole: I have a lot to say on this one. 🙂 From day 1 Rocket Clicks’s goal was to be top of class digital marketers that specialized only in PPC and SEO, focused on technical improvement to be the sharpest, most strategic marketers around, and committed to leadership development and coaching for every team member. We became marketing PARTNERS with our clients and never just their vendors. The coolest part is 7 years later, those core goals still resonate in everything we do, and is apparent in every relationship we have.

We spend our clients’ advertising dollars as if it our own money. When things go well we celebrate together, and when they don’t we fail fast and go back to the drawing board. We have a seat at the table when discussing overall digital marketing strategy, and we value every client relationship.

We don’t have our team members managing dozens of clients at a time. We don’t manage accounts off a checklist – we focus our energy on the most impactful work. Our team members live, breath and dream PPC and they love what they do! Every team member in the company has some involvement in day to day account management and strategy. It keeps us on the cutting edge.

We strongly believe that competency sells. We don’t have a sales team. The account managers, analysts, and department heads sell our services. We don’t promise the moon with unrealistic guarantees or give you only a sliver of strategy with a tease to "pay for more". We demonstrate our competency and show you what you can expect in a relationship, long before you are a client – Transparency works!

It’s easy to fall into more typical agency tendencies, but we do things different here, and I that’s why I am still here today.

Ian: Nicole, you have lived a mobile lifestyle, and have experienced many different areas. This is one of the things I love most about digital marketing. What has been your experience with the mobile digital marketing lifestyle? Any tips for others considering a mobile lifestyle?

Nicole: It’s been a fun ride! For more context, about 2 years after working at Rocket Clicks, my husband, now a Major in the US Army, came home and told me that the Army was moving us to Sacramento, CA. Rocket Clicks and I agreed to do a 6 month "remote trial". That turned into 3 moves to 3 different time zones, having a kiddo on either coast of the US, and having a ton of awesome experiences with interesting people, while doing work I love, for a company I am crazy about.

I agree with you, Ian, a huge perk of this industry is the ability to do what we do from anywhere in the world. With that said, there is a common misconception that a "work-from-home" arrangement is easy. Anyone new to working remotely or untraditional office hours, I highly suggest they define their own personal work policies. In my situation, my location changes often. My own personal policies in order of important are:

Create an office area – even if you work in your kitchen (been there), create an environment where if feels like an office and it feels like you "go to work" each day. In my personal experiences, couches never worked for me!

Commit to a schedule – it’s a slippery slope when you become too flexible with your own schedule. Establishing working hours with family and friends not only demand respect but also makes you respect it more yourself.

Remove distractions – Get away from the TV! Get in the habit of never turning it on, or just remove it out of your office area. That goes for any distraction that pulls your attention away from your work. Work for a week, you’ll quickly find out what those things are.

Don’t skimp on equipment – nothing is more frustrating that having slow internet, a crummy chair, a keyboard with a sticky key, or a monitor with a strange wavy pink line. These little can become excuses quickly!

Be prepared for anything! – Expect power outages – that way they are a little less infuriating when they happen. Stake out all the closest restaurants and coffee shops with Wifi. When you travel, don’t rely on hotel Wifi! Just ask for an Ethernet cable. Every time.

Ian: As someone responsible for operations, you have a very important role at Rocket Clicks. What are some of the skills most important for the VP of Operations role? For those aspiring to grow their careers, what advice would you offer?

Nicole: Find your own organization and time management approach. Not only are we in a constantly evolving industry you have to be able to prioritize what is the most important thing to act on NOW, what is a "shiny red ball" distraction, and what is important but can wait. On a personal level and for people on your team, don’t neglect team development – both technical and professional.

Nicole: The ability to impact people’s business and lives with the work we do is so rewarding. I have seen companies double in size, move into new buildings, expand their offerings, and create local jobs that weren’t there before. Digital marketing creates a level playing field and allows business to scale at their pace.

Least Favorite: Slow moving parity between advertising platforms. Although very different from the past, it can still be be painful transitioning from Adwords to BingAds to Gemini, etc.

Ian: What is your favorite app and why?

Nicole: Would it sound ridiculous if I said the Adwords App? Well, it’s definitely up there! Other than that, I use the Audible app almost daily. The most recent place we call home is in West Des Moines, IA, which is about 6 hours away from the Rocket Clicks office. I do a lot of driving! I listen to books when I drive, when I’m at the gym, and when I travel. My husband would tell me to be honest and list one of the most recent game that has caught my attention. 😉

Ian: The PPC Ian community is always looking to learn and grow. What tips would you offer for those seeking more knowledge in digital marketing and business overall?

Nicole:I learn something new every day. It’s not hard to do when you are in this industry. There are a ton of great blogs to follow for all levels. This industry is full of incredibly smart people with great opinions and views of how to best leverage digital marketing for all kinds of businesses. Find those blogs and get them sent directly to your email. Once you find something that is interesting, or you don’t understand, dig more.

Ian: Nicole, it has been a true honor and please connecting with you today. Thank you for this great opportunity. I personally learned so much and I know that all of the readers will agree. Thanks for giving back to the community and sharing your insights!

Nicole: Thank you!

Everyone, thanks for reading. Enjoy my interview with Nicole Mennicke as much as I did? Please make sure to read my interview with Tyler Dolph, President of Rocket Clicks, if you have not already! Also, if you’re interested in learning more about Rocket Clicks, I highly recommend heading over to their website and reaching out.

Those who have been reading PPC Ian for a long time may remember that I have had the great fortune of interviewing some truly amazing leaders over the years. Well, my good fortune is back and I’m thrilled to share a new interview with you today, with Tyler Dolph, President of Rocket Clicks digital marketing agency.

Before we get into the interview, some background… Rocket Clicks is a truly outstanding agency. In selecting a business partner, I always look at the technical side of things (competency) and the human side of things (collaboration and caring about others). With some of the smartest and kindest people in our industry, Rocket Clicks truly brings both of these to the table. If you’re looking for a digital marketing agency, I highly recommend reaching out to the company that was kind enough to invite me to their headquarters in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin to speak at their YPO Digital Marketing Event. Without further ado, let’s jump into the interview!

Ian: Tyler, it is such an honor and pleasure to interview you today. Thanks so much for taking the time to share your story with PPC Ian readers!

Tyler: Absolutely Ian, thank you for taking the time to learn more about Rocket Clicks! You have a great group of readers and I am honored to be your interviewee.

Ian: How did you get started in digital marketing? How did you get started at Rocket Clicks?

Tyler: I have been involved in digital marketing since day one at my first job. I was involved in our website redesign and the launch of our first PPC campaign. That process piqued my interest and when I made the move to Wisconsin I knew digital marketing was the avenue I wanted to pursue and specialize in.

Ian: What is Rocket Clicks all about? How are you different from other SEM and SEO agencies? Who is the typical Rocket Clicks client?

Tyler: I have just finished a great book by Simon Sinek called "Start with Why." He talks about companies who make a positive impact on their industries and believe that there is a greater purpose beyond what they do, but actually WHY they do it.

Our "Why" is very simple. We believe in meaningful connections and helping our clients get found online. We do this by being expert analysts specializing in paid search advertising and organic search optimization. We will stop at nothing to deliver the best results possible and maximize every dollar that our clients spend.

With Rocket Clicks, our clients are our extended family. Our work is personalized to fit their specific needs.

Our "sweet spot" or ideal client is broad in that we are an ideal fit for clients spending tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars per month. On both ends of that spectrum we provide dedicated (and wicked-smart) analysts to every client. These analysts live in the accounts daily allowing their human intuition, creativity, and analytical problem solving skills to dictate the decisions we make. There is no "set-it and forget-it" bid management software or template ads. We personalize every ad, organize every campaign, and manage every dollar spent. We inject strategy and insights into every single interaction with our clients.

Ian: Can you please provide some background on BizLab and how it related to Rocket Clicks?

Tyler: BizLab is the parent company of Rocket Clicks. It’s really wonderful being part of the BizLab family.

Of particular note, BizLab owns Sterling Commerce Group, a national sales and marketing firm for the satellite television industry. Having deep sales and digital marketing experience in this incredibly competitive vertical is one of our competitive advantages, offering even greater value to our clients.

With the insights and knowledge that come with running successful businesses, we are able to drive superior results for our clients.

Ian: As President of the company, you have obviously done well in your career. Most of my readers are looking to grow their careers. What advice do you have for growth-minded professionals?

Tyler: I live my life by a couple key statements my parents instilled in me at a very young age:

"Do what you say you’re going to do." Much easier said than done, but a person’s word is more valuable than any contract and can grow and build relationships exponentially.

"Just do what ever it takes." No one ever wakes up great. All great leaders, athletes, etc. have put in the work and have done so day after day, even when no one is watching. If you really want something or want grow in your professional life then just do what ever it takes. Work longer hours, read more books, stop watching so much TV. Spend that time educating yourself.

Ian: Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin is such a beautiful place. I believe your office gives you a very unique perspective. I also believe it’s a competitive advantage since you guys are blazing your own trail. How would you describe your office strategy?

Tyler: Being an agency in Menomonee Falls means that we are not only competing with other agencies in Milwaukee but we also have to worry about Chicago which is only an hour and half away. We have found success by providing an environment dedicated to personal and professional growth. "Churn and burn," is not what we are about. We believe if we can train our analysts and show them a path for growth and vision for the future, they will help build our agency. We will not only have a dedicated staff but analysts who are truly part of something greater than themselves.

Ian: As a leader who has truly hired for success (you truly have a unique team), do you have any tips for those hiring?

Tyler: Skills can be taught. Drive, personality and motivation cannot.

Ian: Digital marketing is such an amazing career. What do you like most about digital marketing? What do you like most about your job at Rocket Clicks?

Tyler: Compared to traditional marketing (billboards), digital marketing offers the ability for instantaneous reporting (on an incredibly detailed level). Because of the granularity, we are able to effectively optimize every single penny invested, delivering superior results – what a rush!

Specific to Rocket Clicks, I truly enjoy working with a large variety of clients. We have clients of all sizes, in all markets. Each new client presents a new challenge/opportunity. This keeps things incredibly interesting. Our creative juices are always flowing. We are challenged to drive greatness each and every day.

Ian: Outside of work, what do you do for fun?

Tyler: I played men’s volleyball in college and still love to play today. I play in a few leagues here in Milwaukee and also play in the Men’s National tournament each year.

Ian: Where do you see digital marketing going in the next few years. With things always evolving, where should digital marketing professionals be most focused?

Tyler: That is a great question, Ian. I believe that what stood true in the "Mad Men" days of marketing still holds its weight today. Content is King. Whether it’s a blog post, paid search ad, or custom landing page. The written (typed) word is still vitally important. It tells potential customers & Search Engines, not only what you do, but why it should matter.

Ian: Tyler, we have a lot of career-oriented readers on PPC Ian, those who are interested in optimizing digital marketing campaigns and their careers. What characteristics are important in potential Rocket Clicks employees?

Tyler: On the PPC side, we often find success with applicants who have roots in accounting, finance, and investments. Those who thrive in Excel and have the motivation to learn tend to flourish. AdWords is so expansive. Great candidates have a thirst for knowledge, and enjoy the testing and practicing.

For our SEO division, we often interview candidates with journalist backgrounds. Content marketing has always been an intricate part of our business here at Rocket Clicks. We enjoy candidates who are true content experts.

Ian: Tyler, another super important question for you… How can someone get started working with you and your team? How can a potential client engage Rocket Clicks? Also, any free promotions you are able to offer PPC Ian readers?

Tyler: Of course. Please just email me directly at sales@rocketclicks.com. We are delighted to offer a free digital marketing audit to PPC Ian readers. We will look at your account, keywords, quality score, competitive landscape, and more. We will report back with specific insights, strategies, and solutions. We look forward to hearing from you!

Ian: Tyler I cannot thank you enough. This has been an incredible interview and I know everyone will really enjoy reading.

Tyler: Absolutely, Thank you Ian!

Everyone, thanks for reading. Enjoy my interview with Tyler Dolph as much as I did? Please stay tuned because this is a two-part series. Next up, I’m interviewing Nicole Mennicke, VP of Operations at Rocket Clicks! Also, if you’re interested in learning more about Rocket Clicks, I highly recommend heading over to their website and reaching out.

Tyler and The Rocket Clicks Team

I’m thrilled today to share a mini interview with my good friend, David Rodnitzky. David is a true leader in the digital marketing industry. David and his agency are also long time sponsors and supporter of PPC Ian. I have some exciting news! David’s agency, PPC Associates, is now 3Q Digital. You can read all about the rebrand here. 3Q is one of the best digital marketing agencies around, I cannot say enough great stuff about them. Want to learn all about 3Q Digital? Let’s jump into my mini interview with David…

Ian: David, congratulations on your big announcement!

David: Thanks Ian. It’s been a long journey to get to this point and I’m excited it’s finally arrived!

Ian: How did you decide to re-brand your company?

David: Over the last couple of years our clients have increasingly asked us to do more than “just SEM” for them. The most frequent requests we got involved SEO, Facebook PPC, display advertising, and creative work. We responded to these needs by building out dedicated teams to service each of these areas. Whereas three years ago 100% of our spend was SEM, today almost 20% is a combination of Facebook and display, plus we have about 10% of our customers also using us to manage their SEO. Our name – PPC Associates – implies that all we do is PPC (or SEM, same difference!). While we still see SEM as our core offering, we now have many people on the team that focus on other online marketing services, so it just made sense to come up with a new name that wasn’t so PPC-centric!

Ian: What’s in the future for 3Q Digital?

David: In the short term, we want to just get better at what we are already doing – SEM, SEO, Facebook PPC and display. In the long-term, we are continuing to evaluate different marketing channels that are complementary to our existing channels. If we think we can do an awesome job of servicing clients in these new channels – and we hear from clients that they need help in these areas – we would certainly consider expanding into new areas.

Ian: As a marketer, it must have been so much fun thinking through your branding strategy. How did you arrive at your new brand?

David: We actually had an internal contest where we asked everyone on the team to submit recommendations for the new name. We got about 100 responses and then we narrowed those 100 down to 17 semi-finalists. We had a management team vote on the 17 finalists and ended up with two finalists. We submitted the two finalists back to the greater team to vote and we went with the one that got the most votes. To give you a sense of how much we believe in democracy, the name I voted for lost!

Ian: David, huge thank you for the mini interview. As always, it’s such a pleasure connecting with one of the top marketers ever. I have so much respect for you, your amazing team, and your incredible business. You are an inspiration in our industry!

David: Thanks Ian. We are big fans of you and PPC Ian. If you decide to change your name from PPC Ian to something more generic, let me know, I can help!

That’s it for today, everyone. Make sure to head on over to the 3Q Digital website, and make sure to check out their amazing blog.

Today I am truly lucky and honored to interview Sean Marshall, Senior Director of Client Services at PPC Associates. PPC Associates is Silicon Valley’s SEM Agency. They are awesome! A while back, I had the honor of interviewing their CEO and Co-Founder, David Rodnitzky. Today, I am so excited to interview Sean because his experience is truly exceptional. Joining PPC Associates as the 5th member of the client services team, Sean has enjoyed 3 years of success and is now part of a 50-member team. Without further ado, let’s jump into the interview:

Ian: Sean, thank you so much for interviewing with me. I know PPC Ian readers are going to be truly thrilled with this one.

Sean: Thanks for having me Ian.

Ian: You have built an exceptional career in paid search. How did you first get started?

Sean: I took kind of an odd route. I started my career in lead qualification with a company called Tippit in 2006 and quickly realized making 100+ calls a day wasn’t really for me. I ended up pivoting into a freelance recruiting role for them and the first position I helped them fill was that of SEM Manager. I liked the idea of recruiting as a way to explore the job landscape but half of my reqs were for SEM. The exposure to these PPC jobs and the folks we were recruiting got me thinking: hey, I should be doing that.

Ian: How has your career evolved over the years? How did you grow your career in online marketing?

Sean: Well, after getting snubbed by David at Mercantila (true story), I wound up at Webtrends working on their SEM tool. It was an account management gig but more of a hybrid services/tech/SEM role. It taught me a lot and I got exposure to all sorts of programs. In the meantime, I’d kept in touch with David and heard he was getting his agency off the ground. After about a 6 months of back and forth, he decided it was time to scale the operation and I jumped at the chance.

Ian: What’s it like at PPC Associates? What’s your favorite thing about working at PPC Associates?

Sean: I love to build things, break them, and then build them back up again. Working at PPCA gave me the chance to do that. We were a small scrappy team of 6 when I joined and no one really had agency experience. The company was founded by in-house marketers and combining that mindset with some agency experience was a winning formula. I was able to soak in all sorts of marketing knowledge, contribute things they didn’t know about and then teach it to a new wave of account managers after that.

Ian: You’re a leader at PPC Associates. What are some of the most important lessons you have learned about team leadership? Any recommendations for those just starting out in people management?

Sean: Everyone wants to get into management until they actually start managing… and realize how hard it is. The reason is pretty simple – managers put out fires. Now if your entire job is putting out fires, you should probably rethink your process but that doesn’t mean you won’t deal with tough situations. Having a thick skin and understanding that a large part of the job is managing problems and crises is key. The reward comes in creating and implementing solutions to drive continuous improvement.

Ian: What’s your favorite thing about online marketing? What part of the job do you enjoy the most?

Sean: I’’m definitely one of those guys that appreciates the quantifiable aspects of what we do. I’m a poker player and I need a way to keep score. Tracking and measurement are addicting. That said, I love that it’s still a people business. Sure you can bury your head in excel and AdWords editor but the crux of this is to understand audiences and, on the agency side, clients. The mix of math and people means things will be different every day and if you’re tired of one, you can retreat to the other any given day (just not everyday).

Ian: Any tips for PPC Ian readers looking to grow their career in online marketing?

Sean: Be patient and keep grinding. The internet never shuts off and the work never stops. You need to invest the time but make sure you’re being productive. Doing busy work just to say you worked 60 hours a week won’t accomplish anything. Take the same quantitative approach youdd bring to a marketing campaign to measure the impact your work has and use that to adjust where you spend your time.

Managing online programs can feel like running on treadmill so you need to find finish lines. If you can’t find ways to say “mission accomplished” for various projects, it just feels like you’re perpetually working and that will drive anyone crazy.

Ian: Any campaign optimization tips that are top-of-mind for you right now?

Sean: Attribution is definitely top of mind. We’re focused on an RFP of various attribution/tracking vendors to make sure we can offer clients the best of what’s out there. Each channel influences the other in different ways – not to mention cross device implications. Last click is dead!

Ian: Looking forward to 2013 and the future, how do you see online advertising evolving? What can smart professionals do to stay ahead of the curve?

Sean: Well if you listen to everyone out there, it’s mobile and social. They can’t be looked at in a vacuum though. Mobile commerce sucks and will never equal desktop commerce (now it might generate more traffic but the conversion issues wont magically fix themselves). Connect the dots to measure the true impact. Beyond that – I’d pay more attention to tablets than smart phones. Maybe I’m too fixated on usability but tablets (and eventually larger screened phones) will have a greater impact than people think.

Ian: Sean, thank you so much for the amazing interview. This has been a true pleasure. Any closing thoughts/advice for PPC Ian readers?

Sean: There’s a lot of great content out there – keep reading blogs like these!!

Ian: Thanks again, Sean! Wishing you and everyone at PPC Associates all the best, you guys are true leaders in our industry!

Hey Everyone,
Today, I’m thrilled to share part 2 of my exclusive interview with David Rodnitzky, CEO of PPC Associates. PPC Associates is Silicon Valley’s SEM Agency. Before reading this post, I encourage you to first read Part 1 of my David Rodnitzky Interview. Part 1 of the interview is totally awesome and is not to be missed. Without further ado, let’s jump into part 2 of this amazing interview…

Is PPC Associates hiring? If yes, how can candidates get in touch with you?

To some degree, we are always hiring, though it depends on the level of experience. For candidates with 3+ years of SEM experience, good quantitative skills, and a client-focused attitude, we hire 365 days a year. Moreover, for the right candidate, we offer 100% telecommuting and to date have hired senior folks in Portland, North Carolina, San Diego, and Ottawa.

In general, we’ve grown pretty fast so regardless of your experience, it’s probably worthwhile to submit a resume, because if we aren’t hiring today, there’s a good chance we’ll be hiring in 30 to 60 days. I think the best way to submit a resume is to send it to careers@ppcassociates.com.

Any advice for entrepreneurs starting their own business?

Well, to some degree I don’t consider myself a true entrepreneur, so I have to tread carefully here. I tell people in Silicon Valley you either mine for gold or sell Levis to the miners, and I’m the latter!

For a service business, I think the two pieces of advice I have are to 1) remember it’s a small world and 2) pay for the right people. Regarding the first point, the vast majority of our new business comes from existing or former customers. So by treating clients right and trying to build lifetime relationships instead of short-term profit, you have a greater chance of succeeding long-term.

Regarding the second point, I’ve learned the hard way that you get what you pay for when it comes to building a team. Initially, we tried to build our business with recent college grads and overseas remote employees, but the amount we saved in salaries was offset by the extra management we had to apply to these team members. We probably didn’t overwhelm our clients with amazing service and results either, which is simply unacceptable.
So we now live by Malcom Gladwell’s notion that you need 10,000 hours of experience to be a true expert. To hammer this point home to potential clients, I always ask them to imagine that they’ve been accused of a horrendous crime that they did not commit (yes, I know, I scare potential clients). In such a circumstance, would they hire a recent law school grad for $25/hr or a criminal attorney with 10 years of experience at $250/hr? They then understand why we are so picky about who we hire, and how we can get the results we can get for clients!

Any campaign management tips for PPC professionals?

Test, test, test. Oh, and keywords are a fictional concept invented by Google (or maybe GoTo). Queries are what you need to optimize against, not keywords. We’ve written a lot of great whitepapers on our Web site that are all free – check these out and you can learn a lot about my philosophy around campaign management.

How do you see the SEM industry evolving?

I believe that traditional SEM is dead. Buying keywords and creating text ads is just one part of what SEM is today. Today you need to have expertise in search, social PPC, YouTube, mobile, display, landing page optimization, analytics, and attribution, to name just a few. To be great at SEM today, you have to understand the entire conversion funnel and touch every part of that funnel.

The SEM industry is evolving in the same way that many other professional fields have evolved historically – specialization and sub-specialization. In 1860, if you had a headache, you’d go to your local doctor and he’d try to diagnose your problem. Today, you might go to your general practitioner, who would refer you to a neurologist, who might send you to a movement disorders specialist, who might further refer you to a Parkinson’s Disease expert. The same thing is happening in SEM. We have Facebook PPC experts, YouTube pros, GDN gurus – it’s impossible to expect one person to be an expert at all facets of SEM anymore.

Any closing thoughts for PPC Ian readers?

Keep absorbing everything you can about SEM – the deeper you dig into it, the more you realize how much more you have to learn. I’ve been doing this for 12 years now and I feel like I learn something new every day!

Thank You, David!

David, on behalf of all PPC Ian readers, I want to sincerely thank you for the amazing interview. I’m certainly inspired and truly enjoyed the interview. PPC Ian readers, make sure to check out Part 1 of My David Rodnitzky Interview (if you have not already) and also don’t forget to stop by PPC Associates, Silicon Valley’s SEM Agency.

Interviews here on PPC Ian have been incredibly popular. I’ve been so fortunate to have secured interviews with top industry leaders. Today, I could not be more thrilled and honored, I have secured an exclusive interview with David Rodnitzky, founder and CEO of PPC Associates. PPC Associates is Silicon Valley’s SEM Agency. Just check out their billboards in Palo Alto and see for yourself. I’m a huge fan of David and his agency. They have grown quickly and have an amazing reputation because they deliver results and know their stuff (you may wish to check out their 7 Habits eBook). Without further ado, let’s jump into today’s interview! Today I’ll post the first half of this great interview and tomorrow the second half!

How did you get started in the SEM industry?

I graduated from law school in 1999 and all I knew was that I didn’t want to be a lawyer. So I moved to San Francisco from Iowa because I wanted to live on the West Coast. Initially I took whatever job I could find, from helping QA a Barbie videogame, to doing legal research for a law firm, to consulting to the financial industry.

After about six months, I got an offer to work for a startup called Rentals.com as a "manager of strategy," whatever that means. About six months into that job, the Director of Marketing quit and there was no one in the company managing the marketing budget. So I just volunteered to do it, even though I knew nothing about marketing, and the company agreed to let me take a stab at it.

Initially I was working with an ad agency and a PR agency and paying each of them a retainer of $30,000/month (I did not negotiate these contracts!). Then one day I heard about a company called GoTo.com where you could buy advertising for a penny per click. I tried it out and I was shocked at the volume and quality of traffic I was getting. I fired the two agencies and shifted as much of our budget as possible to GoTo as I could. GoTo turned into Overture, which then turned into Yahoo Search Marketing, which was of course copied by Google AdWords. I was lucky to stumble into this stuff when it was all very new.

How did you decide to start your own agency?

In 2007 I was working for an etailer and managing a remote team in Bangalore, India. About once a quarter, I was making the 30-hour trip over to India to coordinate with my team. Toward the end of the year, my wife got pregnant with our first son, and traveling overseas suddenly seemed like a very bad idea. Plus, I had been working for startups for more than seven years at that point, and I was just burnt out. So I quit without any plan other than to spend time with my wife and new son.

For the first few months of 2008, I hung out at a coffee shop playing online poker and dabbling in affiliate marketing. Slowly, however, I started to get calls from friends in the industry asking me if I could help them with their SEM campaigns. The call volume kept increasing to the point that I stopped the poker and affiliate marketing (neither of which were making me particularly rich) and I focused full-time on the consulting.
From there, I eventually brought on a partner (Will Lin) to handle additional work, and we eventually started to hire staff, rent offices, build process and technology – and, as they say, the rest is history. Today we have 35+ team members, two offices, almost 60 clients, and we manage somewhere north of $60 million in online marketing spending.

What’s it like running an SEM agency?

It’s a lot of fun. We work with a lot of entrepreneur-driven companies, and it’s really exciting to be a part of taking a company from an idea to a successful business. I’m not the kind of person who can come up with a great startup idea and actually execute against it, so I enjoy living vicariously through our clients!
Of course, there is also a lot of stress running an SEM agency. We have to constantly stay on top of the latest trends in SEM, and more and more we are being asked by clients to manage their Facebook, display, mobile, YouTube, and LinkedIn campaigns. So we are constantly distilling new information and applying this to clients’ accounts. It can make your brain hurt, but I’d much prefer to be at a job where I come home mentally exhausted than numb from boredom.

What sets PPC Associates ahead of the competition? What makes you guys unique?

There are a few things we do differently from other agencies. First, we invented the concept of the two-day contract. We want clients to work with us because they are overjoyed by the results and service they are getting, not because they are locked into a long-term contract. So every client has the right to fire us at any time with just two days’ notice if we aren’t exceeding expectations. Fortunately, most don’t!

We also provide our clients with free landing page and banner ad design – this is also a concept that we’ve pioneered in the industry. We’re huge believers in conversion-rate optimization, and we’ve put our money where our mouth is by hiring a full-time designer to support our clients. A lot of clients don’t have internal resources for design, so this is a huge value-add for them.

Third, we have a pretty unique internal process for optimizing campaigns. We call it the Alpha-Beta process, and you can understand the foundations of it by downloading the whitepaper available on our home page. Alpha-Beta is a very granular process that creates incredibly targeted ad groups, each based on a specific query in exact match. We basically make it impossible for Google or any other search engine to match our clients on bad-performing queries.

And last but not least, we are obsessed (in a good way) with service. We run a Net Promoter Survey ® every quarter to make sure we are absolutely delighting our clients, and we make process and personnel changes continuously to improve our results. Our last survey yielded a 91% Net Promoter score, which is about as good as you can get, but we are always trying to get better.

What are some of the greatest challenges you face?

The biggest challenge I see is keeping up with the pace of online marketing. It’s hard enough to keep track of all of the AdWords betas and improvements coming out, but when you combine that with changes to Facebook’s ad platform, the rapid pace of innovation in the display media buying world, and everything else we touch, it’s a lot of information to absorb. Our solution – which has worked so far – is to hire channel-specific experts to be the internal "gurus" for our clients.

What are some of the greatest rewards of running PPC Associates?

The biggest reward for me is helping others to be successful and getting paid to do it. I love seeing our clients gain market share and get accolades from the press. I also love that we’re now employing more than 35 people in a tough economy. Happy clients and happy team members are about all I can ask for.

Stay Tuned – Part 2 of The Interview Comes Out Tomorrow

David, thank you so much! What an amazing interview. I’m totally glued to this one, and am so impressed. I can’t wait to post part 2 of the interview tomorrow. PPC Ian readers, make sure to check out PPC Associates today.

I’m thrilled today to interview one of the top commentators on my blog, Dino Vedo! Dino Vedo is a very popular blogger in the affiliate space, I frequent his daily and have learned numerous affiliate marketing tips from Dino. Above and beyond his blogging expertise, Dino is a full time college student and a young millionaire. Very impressive stuff! It’s been a real honor getting to know Dino over the last year, he’s a great friend and business partner. I know many of you reading PPC Ian are interested in PPC careers. Dino is someone you’ll want to pay close attention to because he can definitely teach you some strategies than can help with your online marketing career. Without further ado, let’s get into the interview…

Please tell PPC Ian readers a little bit about yourself

I’m currently a student at University of Michigan and I’m super busy juggling both affiliate marketing and my school work. College life is fun, don’t get me wrong, but it can get quite overwhelming when you need to attend clubs, hang out with your friends, study for tests, and then check over your campaigns before you go to sleep! Most of my friends have no idea how to make money online, nor exactly know what I do. Most of them think the only way to make money online is to scam, but as we all know that definitely is not the case. Anyways, I’m studying in the School of Business at U of M, and later plan on transferring maybe to a different University as this will be only my sophomore year and I’d hope to get into a much more prestigious school to finish my studies.

How did you get started in affiliate marketing and blogging?

For me, it all began around 3 years ago, when I was just turning 16. My mom encouraged me to start selling stuff on eBay to make some money as I was always asking her for some and apparently she got sick of it. Ha. A good friend of hers was already selling a lot of things on eBay and already was well experienced with how eBay works, and agreed to help me get started. After weeks of selling some of my old stuff around the house, I came to see the huge potential in this and wanted to expand and make a lot more money just like any teenager at that time would. So I ended up going over to Liquidations.com and buying huge amounts of auctions in bulk, such as electronics and video games and who knows what else. On a per item basis, the items were being liquidated for only a few bucks, and I knew I could sell them for maybe double or triple for what I got them for. So that is exactly what I did, and in a few months I quickly became a eBay Power Seller, and before I knew it my basement was turning into a large scale warehouse! At that time, I was making a few thousand per month with minimal work. Sure you had to take pictures of the items and write descriptions and then ship and package them out, but I honestly did not mind as I liked what I was doing and was making good money with it as well.

But of course, after around a year of two of this, all good things came to an end. PayPal had limited my account and froze my funds inside the online account. Not only that but since they work directly with eBay, they had my listings closed, and my eBay account was put on hold. Now why did this happen? My eBay account was in good standing, I had close to 5K in positive feedbacks and close to 98% positive feedback. Well, at that time eBay was going through drastic changes in their policies, and numerous sellers were complaining. If you had an eBay account a few years back, I’m sure you can remember that the eBay feedback system was completely fair. By that I mean the seller and buyer both had the right to leave positive or negative feedback. But that was changed a few weeks before I got in trouble, and the reason, my best guess is (as eBay or PayPal aren’t allowed to tell you the reasons..) that I had too many bad reviews or ratings in a short time frame. Sure I was an eBay Power seller, but eBay at that time did not care, or was their system broke? I have no idea but they ended up limiting my account and ruining my business for a good month or two. I was able to get the account back after I had verified that the stuff I was selling was legit and after I sent numerous paper work to prove it.

So problem solved huh? Nope not at all. Since eBay closed my listings, some items were in transit and some were sold and not shipped yet. So what does eBay do for those buyers? They send them a message stating that the seller may have been fraudulent and they are investigating him. Wow thanks eBay right? So imagine what happened, I got even more negative ratings and feedback, some complained they never got their item when they paid, which at the time was true, but there was nothing I could do as PayPal froze my funds and said not to ship anything until the investigation was complete. So my eBay account was in horrible standing afterwards, and I could barely get a sale and ended up giving up after that, enraged at eBay.

As an entrepreneur at heart, I never admit failures, but rather look at them as opportunities to learn or to make something better out of it, and that’s truly what happened. I ended up reading about other ways to make money online, read tons of eBooks on various subjects such as internet marketing and blogging. Starting creating websites and products, and before I knew it I was making just as much, if not more than on eBay. Not to mention, it was much easier to do as I had no items to ship, and no customers to deal with! Now it was all just a matter of scaling up, learning more, and trying out different affiliate strategies to get traffic, whether it was paid or through organic searches.

How are you able to balance your coursework in college with Internet marketing?

This is definitely hard and I would be lying if I said anyone can do it. I do believe that anyone can learn internet marketing and make money online, but to attend college and do it at the same time? No definitely not easy to do and you can trust me on that. Being a full time college student and living there is hard to start with, but now add girls, partying, studying, more girls, homework, tests, more girls… alright I think you get it by now and see where I’m getting at.

But yeah, it definitely is hard to do, and I manage it somehow. I’m always in class multi tasking. I think that is the biggest difference from me and another student. I have my laptop whenever I got to class, and I’m always doing something on it, while listening to the instructor. Risky huh? It sure is but I’ve managed to listen and learn, while optimizing campaigns and reading up on new posts on blogs such as Ian’s! So take it from me, it can be done but its hard!

When you graduate, do you plan to get a job or pursue affiliate marketing full time?

I really don’t know about this one. I guess whatever happens, happens. I enjoy what I am doing now, so if I get job opportunities that are similar and I see that there’s a huge potential in it, I may as well bite. But to say that will happen anytime soon, would be a lie as I see myself being self employed and working from my own home/office for the next few years for sure.

What advice do you have for affiliate marketers in high school or college looking to make it big online?

Perseverance and determination is key in my opinion. I see lots of my friends wanting to do what I do, they start asking me what is best they do first and this and that. I’m a good friend so I tell them what to do and how to do it right. But after a few days of maybe losing money or not making what they hope, they give up and say its impossible and pointless. I think that’s the attitude of around 99% or so of everyone who tries to make money online and fails at it. So if you fail, look at what mistakes you made learn from them and try again. If it fails again, reconsider what you are doing and research a better niche or try something else. The opportunities are so vast, that if you give up it truly is no one but your fault.

What are your long term goals?

To make lots and lots of money. That and enjoy the internet lifestyle and all the good things that come with it. I really enjoy networking with people and learning about the successes and failures of others. It truly is the best way to further your understanding of how affiliate marketing really works and how to be successful. I also plan on expanding the niches I am currently in, develop a few authority sites, invest in more domains, create a few products to help people out, and who knows what else…

I also plan on moving out from Michigan as soon as I finish college or transfer. I hate the cold climates and would do anything to be able to live in a place like California, so you can definitely count on seeing me there in 2-3 years. Specifically a city such as San Francisco. I’ve heard lots of internet marketers are there and there are lots of things to do, both on the entertainment and business side.

What’s the future of Internet marketing?

The future is what we all make. Sure some say mobile and some say applications like on Facebook, but who really knows. There could be a shift in the mobile industry that changes it for good, maybe Facebook dies off, or maybe the internet and SEO changes? Most would say yeah sure, but if you look just a year or so ago, everyone was on Myspace and it was huge. Now in only a year, Facebook is bigger than Myspace and even bigger than Google in traffic. Would anyone have guessed this? So the future is really in our hands, and is truly what we make of it. With that, be the future and create something that will change it. I’m sure there is money to be made in that…

About PPC Ian

Hi, I'm Ian Lopuch, also known as PPC Ian. I'm a Silicon Valley business executive, marketing executive, and general manager, with deep roots in technology. I’m also an investor with a lifelong obsession for cash flow. Whether I’m acquiring and developing commercial real estate properties, leading complex digital marketing programs with $30 MM+ annual budgets, integrating cutting-edge technologies, or hiring and coaching large teams, I take charge of all with the mindset of an investor.